Everyone fires Valery Gergiev

[Brian]

Unfortunately world events are making an effect on the classical scene.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/01/russian-conductor-gergiev-fired-munich-putin/

Gergiev has been removed from his upcoming Munich, Rotterdam, Verbier, and La Scala work as well as a Vienna Philharmonic tour of the USA. Verbier asked for his resignation and received it; Munich fired him outright after asking him to denounce the current war. He refused to reply.

The NY Metropolitan Opera has said they won't maintain relations with any pro-Russian state artists; that may possibly include future Bolshoi Ballet collaborations and Anna Netrebko, although for now it's intentionally vague. Bolshoi performances in London have been cancelled.

I can only assume Valentina Lisitsa is blacklisted everywhere already. Denis Matsuev was meant to tour with Gergiev and his Carnegie Hall appearances have been dropped.

[JBS]

I have more than a few of Gergiev's recordings.  Some are meh, some are good, but the only extra special one in my list is the Shostakovich 4 he did for what was still Philips, with the combined Rotterdam/Kirov (as it was still known then) orchestras.

[Mirror Image]

Good. These artists should be denounced for showing favoritism for a murdering batshit crazy dictator.

[Karl Henning]

The wry irony is that he participated in a documentary about Shostakovich, whom it pained so deeply to be associated with the murdering autocrats.

[Mirror Image]

The wry irony is that he participated in a documentary about Shostakovich, whom it pained so deeply to be associated with the murdering autocrats.

Indeed and, in my mind, Shostakovich was one of the greatest Russians of them all! Not only for his music, but his learning how to write what he wanted under such an oppressed system.

[Florestan]

Gergiev is a scumbag. He gets what he deserves and so should every Russian conductor / performer / singer who doesn't speak out loud against the war crimes of Putin and his minions. Enough is enough.

[Brahmsian]

Our orchestra music director, Daniel Raiskin, vehemently denounced Putin and Russia for going to war with Ukraine.

I'm very glad he did, but I wasn't surprised. I knew he would. He is a man of integrity.

[relm1]

The wry irony is that he participated in a documentary about Shostakovich, whom it pained so deeply to be associated with the murdering autocrats.

Further irony is how Russians stood their ground defending their homeland against an unjust military invasion from another powerful army.  They stood defiantly and suffered tremendous losses (562,000 civilian deaths over the course of a three-year siege) and would not surrender. 

[Karl Henning]

Further irony is how Russians stood their ground defending their homeland against an unjust military invasion from another powerful army.  They stood defiantly and suffered tremendous losses (562,000 civilian deaths over the course of a three-year siege) and would not surrender. 

Exactly.

[Brahmsian]

Time for me to hunt down another 'Nutcracker'

[Florestan]

Further irony is how Russians stood their ground defending their homeland against an unjust military invasion from another powerful army.  They stood defiantly and suffered tremendous losses (562,000 civilian deaths over the course of a three-year siege) and would not surrender.

It must be said, though, that the USSR at the time was very far from being an innocent victim. Two years before the German invasion the Hitler-Stalin pact enabled the latter to: (1) attack and carve up Poland in conjunction with Nazi Germany, perpetrating the Katyn massacre in the process , (2) attack and annex the Baltic States, (3) attack Finland and (4) carve up Romania. Besides, cooperation between USSR and Nazi Germany, including at military level, started many years before. And according to Viktor Suvorov's well documented book M-Day, on June 22, 1941 Hitler simply forestalled an impending Soviet attack.

(Suvorov, an ex-Soviet spy who was sentenced to death in the USSR for defecting to the West, has a whole series of books on the history of the USSR and WW2, all well-worth reading.)

[Spotted Horses]

Gergiev has been removed from his upcoming Munich, Rotterdam, Verbier, and La Scala work as well as a Vienna Philharmonic tour of the USA. Verbier asked for his resignation and received it; Munich fired him outright after asking him to denounce the current war. He refused to reply.

I can just imagine Putin in his situation room, as a subordinate timidly knocks on the door and enters.

"Your excellency, Gergiev has been sacked, again.

Putin, wailing in tearful anguish, "What have I done?!?!"

[Daverz]

Will the record labels follow suit?  Oh, pity poor record critic Huntley Dent (AKA Santa Fe Listener).  He's a HUGE Gergiev fanboi. 

[Brian]

Will the record labels follow suit?  Oh, pity poor record critic Huntley Dent (AKA Santa Fe Listener).  He's a HUGE Gergiev fanboi.

I don't know, but his name still sounds like a name if you reverse it: Dentley Hunt.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

As a person who's lived in both of the countries currently at war, I'm going to throw in a dissenting note.

Is it really a good idea for ensembles to sack someone because he failed to express an opinion that was demanded of him? This strikes me as contrary to the principles we are supposed to uphold, here in the so-called free world.

Consider a hypothetical. If any prominent American musicians had supported W. Bush's illegal and unjust invasion of Iraq (a war which has a lot of parallels with the present one), would any ensembles that employed them have an obligation to fire them?

Somebody mentioned Shostakovich upthread. Many people here enjoy the work of Soviet-era musicians. Many of these musicians were required to sign denunciations, affirmations, and so on, by the Soviet government. Most of them did so, because they understood that the consequences of not signing might be dire. Shostakovich was one of them. Are you really going to throw out your DSCH recordings because of this?

(for what it's worth, I have no Gergiev recordings, and I've only heard him live once)

[Mirror Image]

Will the record labels follow suit?  Oh, pity poor record critic Huntley Dent (AKA Santa Fe Listener).  He's a HUGE Gergiev fanboi.

Screw that guy!

[T. D.]

Firstly, I'm unaffected because I own no Gergiev recordings. Read his rapturous press coverage in NYT and elsewhere back in the '90s, but saw Gergiev conduct live a couple of times (high energy but really sloppy) and concluded that he was either spreading himself too thin or benefiting from an adept PR agent.

I agree that "blacklisting" Russian artists is debatable. But IMO if one's been taking dirty money (and I'm sure Gergiev has been well-compensated for regime support), tough s**t.

[André]

Well, there's this, from this article:

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/for-musical-artists-aligned-with-putin-the-ukraine-invasion-brings-a-reckoning

What is happening here represents just the latest, though perhaps the most glaring, iteration of an age-old conundrum. What expectations do we have — should we have — for artists and other ostensibly nonpolitical actors in a time of crisis? Is it incumbent on literally everyone to declare their allegiances?

The problem with that framing, though, is that sitting on the sidelines is also a choice. Silence in the face of injustice represents an acquiescence to that injustice.

To claim, as many do, that art should "transcend" politics — that it exists in a realm where the push and pull of human conflict have no relevance — represents an impoverished view of both politics and art. To the extent that art has any bearing on the world, it's necessarily political.

(Soprano Anna) Netrebko posted a series of statements on her Instagram account, voicing opposition to the war but adding, "forcing artists, or any public figure, to voice their political opinions in public and to denounce their homeland is not right. ... Like many of my colleagues, I am not a political person."

(Pianist Igor) Levit's reply, which named no one but left no doubt about the target, was swift and merciless.

"Being a musician does not free you from being a citizen, from taking responsibility, from being a grown up," he wrote, before adding, "And never, never bring up music and your being a musician as an excuse. Do not insult art."

There will be consequences for all of them, but nothing on the scale of what has befallen Gergiev. For years, he reaped the benefits of his political partnership with Putin. Now that the bill has come due, it will be hard for him to claim he didn't know what he had signed on to

Conductor Vasily Petrenko decided not to perform in his home country (Russia) « until peace has been restored »: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-60589271. Way to go !

The point is, a line has to be drawn somewhere. Going back in time, a conductor active in Germany before September 1939 could well have you believe he was 'apolitical', but after the invasion of Poland, that term can't apply in any way to any person choosing to pursue activities as if nothing had happened.

[LKB]

Time for me to hunt down another 'Nutcracker'

One of the rare occasions in which the imprint recording didn't remain my favorite concerns this ballet. Back in the '70's, Antal Dorati recorded The Nutcracker with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips, and it's remained my favorite ever since.

[Brahmsian]

One of the rare occasions in which the imprint recording didn't remain my favorite concerns this ballet. Back in the '70's, Antal Dorati recorded The Nutcracker with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips, and it's remained my favorite ever since.

That might be what I look for, as I love Dorati and RCO recording of The Sleeping Beauty.